Last week, Swiss archaeologists announced an incredible find: treasure hunters in Switzerland uncovered an ancient artifact - a bronze arm adorned with a gold cuff. As scientists say, the metal hand belongs to the Bronze Age, which means that it is about 3500 years old!
Artifact construction
The size of the artifact is slightly smaller than the average hand. According to archaeologists, this is the oldest metal sculpture of a part of a human body in Europe.
An antique artisan made a hollow hole in the lower part of the arm, which gives us the following hint: this part of the body was once installed on other objects, for example, on a statue or scepter.
What could be its purpose?
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“It is possible that this hand was used as a prosthesis or some kind of magical object during the performance of ancient rituals,” says Andrea Sher, director of the Department of Ancient History and Romanesque Archeology of the Archaeological Survey of the Canton of Bern.
In October 2017, treasure hunters used metal detectors to find a metal hand near Lake Biel in the Swiss canton (province) of Bern. The next day, the discoverers donated not only a hand to the Archaeological Service, but also a bronze dagger and part of a rib found along with the artifact.
As Sher says, they've never seen anything like it. “At first we couldn't even define what it was,” Andrea said.
Radiocarbon dating revealed that the glue used to attach the thin gold cuff to the bronze arm was from 1500-1400. BC. This period also corresponds to the age of the bronze knife found with the hand, archaeologists say.
What have archaeological excavations have shown?
Intrigued archaeologists traveled to the site in late spring this year, hoping to find other artifacts from that period.
Their expedition turned out to be quite successful: Sher and her colleagues discovered the fragments of a grave near the small village of Preles, located near Lake Biel. The bones of an elderly man were found in the grave, as well as a bronze fibula, a bronze hair ornament in the form of a spiral, thin plates of gold, which have a correlation with the ornament on the bronze hand.
In addition, archaeologists have found at the site of the excavation a fragment of a bronze finger, which is proof that the hand was buried in this grave.
The Bronze Age left another surprise at the bottom of the grave: a stone structure made by ancient people. It turns out that the owner of the bronze hand was specially buried on this structure, archaeologists emphasized.
Who could it belong to?
“Surely he was a high-ranking person at the time,” archaeologists say. "Gold jewelry was then a symbol of power, a distinctive feature of the highest social class, a person of almost divine origin, by the standards of ancient people."
According to scientists, they are going to study the chemical composition of the hand to find out if the found hand was created in this region. It is likely that the "cyborg man" could have come to these places from distant lands.
A discovery that can turn all our ideas about a person
Archaeologists note that this is a truly unique find, since no metal sculptures like this have ever been found in Central Europe before.
On October 14, the metal hand will be on display at the Neues Museum Biel. However, the purpose of this artifact remains a complete mystery to us.
Stefan Hochuli, director of the Department for the Protection of Archaeological Sites in the canton of Zug, told National Geographic that such finds show us how much we still do not know about the past of humanity. “Such discoveries are a small window into the spiritual world of ancient society, they usually turn out to be much more complex than we can imagine,” says Stefan.
Could this person be some kind of cyborg? We can only guess. Who knows what civilizations actually existed at that time, because, unfortunately, we do not have a time machine to move at the right time to the right place. Many people believe that a long time ago there was an Atlantean civilization on our planet. Maybe in the Bronze Age people knew much more than we can imagine?
Author: Christina Blazhievskaya
